


Give Me Fever

by MellytheHun



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Awkward Flirting, Canon Compliant, Darth Tantrum and his Evil Space Ginger, Fluff, Gift Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Romance, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 22:37:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9405881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellytheHun/pseuds/MellytheHun
Summary: Kylo and Hux go to check the chosen venue for Starkiller together.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sigalawin](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sigalawin).



> Based off of and entirely inspired by @sigalawin’s gift to @everowlskies which can be viewed in all its glory [right here](http://sigalawin.tumblr.com/post/154611102147/my-twitter-kylux-secret-satan-for).

Kylo never really understood the use of Hux's obnoxious greatcoat if he wasn't actually going to wear it correctly. Any comment about the coat being more efficient if used properly only sent Hux into a tirade about Kylo having 'no room to talk,' and other muttered things about Kylo's 'dramatic kriffing aesthetic,' and the general message was to shut his mouth. Kylo did so all too gladly; the General wasn't exactly his idea of an endearing conversationalist anyway and while riling the General up was a fun pastime, Kylo preferred an appeased, silent General Hux - much less trouble, that.

That dynamic well established between them, it could not have come as a surprise that Kylo kept his mouth shut when Hux first started sneezing and huffing into his gloves. He expected Hux wouldn't hear any reason about his coat and he certainly wasn't asking for Kylo to light his saber or create any artificial heat - which Kylo didn't entirely understand. He knew that Hux understood the extent of his powers, that he could simply ask Kylo to heat the air around them and it could be done in the blink of an eye - that he could make the both of them just as warm as he was under his armor. Hux wasn't the type of man to ask for help, though. Strangely, Kylo had been able to read Hux's energy well enough to find that his inability to ask for aid had almost nothing to do with Hux's oversized pride and most to do with an orphan-like loneliness.

More often than not, asking for help didn't even cross Hux's mind at all as an option during any time of need. 

Hux was a survivalist, but he was a loner too. Asking for help was simply not among his mentally listed options - he was dramatic, certainly, but rational and strategic as well. He wouldn't deny help offered, but the thought of seeking out the help never seemed to cross his mind as a realistic option.

Through his periphery and against the whipping wind and snow, Kylo watched Hux's face get blotchy red, saw how he rubbed his hands together, breathed into his gloves and held the warm exhales up against his face to keep feeling in his nose - he watched the way Hux rubbed at his hat to try and warm it before putting back over his head, doing so little in way of keeping himself warm. It would be so simple to just _ask_ , but Kylo knew well enough that Hux would never ask. It was a little pitiful, actually and Kylo could tell Hux wasn't even considering asking for help - help was simply not an option. He was always so determined to do things on his own. 

Admittedly, Kylo was quite the opposite and that's likely why he found Hux's independence so frustrating. He'd grown used to the easy brotherhood with the Knights and it was hard to be away from them most days. They all relied on one another so much to strengthen each other and they never needed to ask for anything - someone in the group could always sense who needed what. Often before that person knew it themselves. And all that was ever needed was provided - teamwork at its finest. 

Kylo couldn't understand why Hux refused to connect - socialization, grouping, living in 'packs,' as it were - it's beneficial for the individual _and_ the whole. Kylo knows this and cannot see why Hux doesn't.

He's watching Hux wring his uniform cap into shreds, just opening his mouth to offer unasked-for help when Hux shoots him a positively deadly scowl. He's a bit shocked by it and he turns away from Hux's wide-eyed madness. The cold is clearly driving him insane.

Shutting his eyes, Kylo slips into the lower back of Hux's brain, searching his memories for some direction - any clue as to how to proceed without getting his head bitten off. 

Loathe as he was to admit it, Kylo rather _liked_ Hux. He is nice to look at, even blotchy-red and irritated beyond all reason and he is appealing in his own way. He's a slim man, tall as Kylo, commands his army with a drive and vigor Kylo admires; certainly not a conversationalist, but if he were, Kylo would've liked to engage him from time to time. He has found, over time spent aboard _the Finalizer_ with the General that his mind is just about impenetrable. Steel walls, electrified and unforgiving, guard his every thought and even when he is at his most graceful, Kylo's presence in his mind can be detected within twenty-three seconds. When Kylo enters Hux's mind, walking beside him, he knows his time is limited to say the least.

It's simple enough to find the memory most bothering Hux - the most relevant one, the one he needs as an answer to an unasked question. Of course, the memory is at the forefront of Hux's mind, bothering him and biting at him. 

Kylo sees a memory of what he suspects is bootcamp for First Order Officers. They are somewhere very snowy and Hux's squadron has been pulled out of their beds in the dead of night to stand in at least two feet of snow. The snow was still coming down, piling on them and all of them were in just their underclothes - they'd been rushed out of their barracks and made to sound off in a parade stance for more than an hour. Hux, even thinner and smaller at the time, very nearly fell to exposure before they were permitted to return to their beds. Even in his bed, Hux could not get warm again. The cold settled under his skin, made a home there and even in the day time, he could not get warm again. It seems he later developed Idolian Fever from the event and more than any other torture, he seems to detest the cold the most. He would rather be burned alive than made to live somewhere icy and terribly chilled as this.

Recovering and examining the memory takes just under nineteen seconds and then Kylo removes himself. It appears that Hux is still too focused on how irritatingly cold he is to have noticed any intrusion at all. 

Knowing that any verbal offer would be refused, Kylo simply slips off his cloak and says, "General," as way of warning.

With a put-upon sigh, Hux stops wringing his cap and shifts his eyes toward Kylo - if he were deigning to turn his head all the way, he was stopped by Kylo all but tossing his cloak onto Hux's face.

Untrusting as ever, Hux is suspicious at first, eyeing Kylo from beyond the shadow of his hood. When Kylo says nothing else, keeps his eyes straight ahead and his pace even, Hux concedes, a grateful air about him. 

And something strangely shy. 

It's a curious emotion, not typical of Hux and Kylo only has so much self-restraint. He wants to ask.

"Everything alright, General?"

"Quite," Hux replies briefly.

 _He's keeping his words short so that I won't notice his teeth chattering_ , Kylo knows. He could tell from the moment Hux opened his mouth. 

"Would it be too much trouble to stop a moment?"

" _You_ need a rest?" Hux asks incredulously.

Kylo shakes his head and moves more toward the tree line. It gives a very weak barrier against the winds, but it's better than nothing. He removes his helmet, his hair immediately swept into the flakes and ice swirling around them. Hux is holding tightly to the cloak around his head and shoulders and cocking a curious brow at him. 

If Kylo were allowed to have such thoughts, he might have thought, bundled up in Kylo's clothing, his sharp eyes staring up at him inquisitively, red lips pouty and brow furrowed thoughtfully, that Hux looked _cute_.

He is not allowed to have thoughts like that, though, so he decidedly does not think that.

"Trust me for a minute?"

"Please, make requests within _reason_ , R-Ren," Hux drawls sarcastically - he doesn't meet Kylo's eyes, though. He's embarrassed to have shuddered from the cold and Kylo wishes he could scold Hux for being so unnecessarily shamed.

Kylo puts his helmet to the ground and removes his gloves - Hux side-eyes him the whole while, trying to figure out what is about to happen, but there is no way for him to know. Kylo steps forward then, lining his body up against Hux's, then taking Hux's face into his bare and calloused hands. He can't be sure whether or not Hux's face gets so red because he's holding it or because he's getting colder, but Kylo thinks it's an appealing look either way. He leans his forehead against Hux's, lids his eyes and commands lowly, "open your mouth."

Too stunned to insist he 'takes orders from no one,' (as he usually does when Kylo demands something), Hux simply obeys.

If the temperature isn't effecting Kylo's energy readings, he swears he feels a spike of arousal come from Hux as well. 

He's intrigued by it and rather sorry if he's about to disappoint Hux.

He moves his face in close, opens his mouth and ghosts his lips across Hux's; he builds a mounting heat like a blazing fire in his chest, gathers that blaze and feeds it as much as he can before he breathes it out against Hux's waiting mouth. He secures his grip around Hux's cheeks and jaw, moving his heat into Hux's body for a long few beats before snapping Hux's jaw shut, trapping the heat in him.

"Swallow."

With a strangled noise, Hux obeys without protest again and then Kylo _feels_ the heat - _his_ heat - spread over Hux's face, feels when Hux sighs in relief, relaxes minutely in his hold; he can feel when Hux's muscles stop contracting from the chill and he looks as though he could melt into the ground. He watches how Hux's eyes flutter shut, thinking it's rather pretty - the color of Hux's hair and lashes. That Hux himself is rather easy on the eyes. 

Garnering that reaction, the grabby-handed child in Kylo decides that more stimuli is absolutely necessary. He wants to do more for Hux. He wants to _please_ Hux.

And, perhaps, show off a little bit.

He hardly gets the opportunity and when he does, Hux is so scarce with his compliments and praise. 

He sets his feet firmly in the crunching snow and begins building the flames again, but this time at the soles of his feet - he concentrates on dragging the licking, crackling light through his legs, over his hips, through his stomach, chest, neck and face and then he sighs against Hux's cheek. The sting of that heat surprises Hux - it must feel like holding an open flame against Hux's skin and Kylo encases them in a field of energy, trapping the warmth and surrounding Hux with it - inside and out. Hux's eyes, half-lidded, stare up at him in wonder.

"You can just... do that?"

"I can do most anything," Kylo responds.

Typically, Hux would roll his eyes at an answer like that, but all his eyes do is flicker back and forth between Kylo's. 

There are some freckles on Hux's high cheekbones and his hair is mussed in a terribly attractive way from the winds and the snow wetting it. There's something remarkably attractive too, about Hux wearing Kylo's cloak. 

"Thank you."

A smile works its way onto Kylo's mouth and he could have backed away by now - his lips needn't be so close to Hux's, but Hux doesn't know that and Kylo finds he rather likes being in such close quarters with Hux. He would like to stay there for the foreseeable future, really, but he knows he'll have to move soon. 

"You're very welcome, General. In the future, all you need to do is ask."

"For the cloak or the Force heat?"

"Anything at all."

Hux smiles, glancing away and Kylo rubs his thumb over Hux's skin, testing that it's returned to its healthy surface temperature. The pet of his thumb, though, is unintentionally gentle and sweet. Innately romantic. He doesn't mean for it to happen - their faces are so close and the brush is so soft. Kylo wonders idly if Hux cares for soothing touches like that - he wonders if Hux would let his fingers thread into that ginger hair, if Hux would take more of Kylo's commands if they're to do with his mouth. His eyes flash down to Hux's mouth and stay glued there - there is nothing more worth his attention. 

"Is there anything?"

"Sorry?" Hux asks a bit distractedly, gaining Kylo's attention back and pinning him with his relentless, intense gaze.

"Is there anything else you might want or need from me, General?"

"Oh," Hux breathes and _Stars_ , Kylo _feels it_ move over his lips, feels the thrum of something carnal and tempting in Hux's energy and he'd quite like to kiss Hux, but this is thin ice, very new, fragile, but promising. Thrilling. He vows to himself that he will further explore this newfound territory. Perhaps Hux wouldn't mind being warmed on the bridge every so often. Perhaps Kylo could replace Hux's greatcoat altogether. 

"May I keep the cloak?"

"Keep it?" 

Hux nods, eyes still stuck on Kylo's, looking very nearly hypnotized. Kylo knows he hasn't influenced Hux in any way - Hux's mind is much too strong to be influenced by Kylo (and Kylo _has_ tried), which means that whatever effect his gesture has had on Hux is entirely genuine. Kylo is certain he's never felt more powerful in his life than holding General Hux as he is now, keeping him warm, staving away unpleasant memories, breathing in the sweetened caf scent of Hux's exhales. He thinks Hux's mouth might taste just as sweet. He'd like to know.

"I... it's warm."

"Yes," Kylo replies belatedly, his voice unrecognizable to even himself - it's sultry, lower than it normally is - he feels that thrum of want come from Hux's feedback again, but he does his best to ignore it and add, "You may keep the cloak for however long you see fit, General. I encourage it."

Tugging it more closely to himself, Hux smiles again, beautifully and says, "thank you, Ren."

"My pleasure. Truly."

**Author's Note:**

> Hux's memory is based off of one of my husband's memories of MCT (Marine Combat Training) - they were made to stand in the cold snow at like 2am and sound off. My husband already had a cold that night and it turned into Scarlet Fever before MCT was over because of it - drill instructors are so cruel ; _ ;


End file.
